Boot Sequence Research Articles

나노위성 전개스위치 구현 사례 및 고찰

Most Nanosatellites are launched in nanosatellite deployers. Nanosatellites in the deployer are turned off during launch, and they start boot sequence after deploying at their mission orbit. For this reason, nanosatellites must have deployment switch. Most of the nanosatellite deployment switch has two part, first is electric switch to boot the satellite system and second is mechanical assembly to push the switch. In most cases, electric switches are installed in the satellite main body, and the switch operations are translated via the mechanical assembly. These implementations are mechanically complicated and hard to guarantee the appropriate operation without the problems due to friction between pusher and satellite structure. This paper proposes the another implementation method of deployment switch for nano-satellites by installing the electric switch outside the main body without any kind of mechanical parts.

Improving Hardware Security on Talos II Architecture Through Boot Image Encryption

The OpenPOWER Foundation is an organization that promotes open-source high-performance hardware like the POWER9. OpenBMC is an OpenPower project that strives to produce an open-source firmware stack for Baseboard Management Controllers (BMCs). If hardware falls into the hands of competitors or bad actors, reverse engineering methods can be used to leak or manipulate sensitive information from the boot sequence. This represents a security concern because the root of trust can be invalidated. For example, since the Initial Program Load (IPL) data is frequently not encrypted and is sent over the Low Pin Count (LPC) bus, it is possible to intercept and conduct man-in-the-middle attacks to modify the boot process. The boot image flash chip could also be removed from the Talos II motherboard and examined by competing server architecture manufacturers to reveal detailed boot information. Firmware that developers deem to contain sensitive code or perform innovative operations needs to be protected before being flashed onto the boot image chip. This paper demonstrates a method to encrypt sections of the boot image by encrypting a section of the image before flashing it onto the Talos II. The encrypted image will be decrypted during the boot sequence in the Level 3 cache of the POWER9, proving that it is possible to prevent adversaries from interfering with the IPL flow or obtaining details on firmware from the flash chip. This paper presents a novel method to improve the security of the boot image on Talos II architecture by encrypting the boot firmware image and decrypting it during the boot process. The proof of concept was executed on a Raptor Engineering Talos II system running a POWER9 processor with OpenBMC firmware on the ASPEED AST2500 BMC. This research claims that this unique method increases boot time security through firmware without altering hardware.

Laser-Induced Fault Injection on Smartphone Bypassing the Secure Boot-Extended Version

This paper describes the outcome of a laser attack study on an Android smartphone targeting specifically the secure boot sequence. Laser fault injection has become a classical attack path in the secure chip industry to investigate potential security mitigation. The implementation of such attacks on a recent mobile phone remains relatively unexplored and represents different challenges, both at hardware and software levels. In this paper, we show how the device is crafted to get a direct access to the silicon and explain the corresponding experimental setup. By inserting our own software into the boot sequence, it was possible to achieve a fine characterization of the die sensitivity to laser emissions. With the knowledge of potential perturbations, several attack scenarios were built, allowing to malevolently get the highest level of privilege within the mobile phone.

Remote System Update for System on Programmable Chip Based on Controller Area Network

In some application domains, using a download cable to update the system on a programmable chip (SoPC) is infeasible, which reduces the maintainability and flexibility of the system. Hence the remote system update (RSU) scheme is being studied. In this scheme, the serial configuration (EPCS) device involves a factory mode configuration image, which acts as the baseline, and an application mode configuration image, which is used for some specific functions. Specifically, a new application mode image is delivered through the controller area network (CAN) with the improved application layer protocol. Besides, the data flow and data check for transmitting a new image are constructed to combine the transmission reliability with efficiency. The boot sequence copying hardware configuration code and software configuration code is analyzed, and the advanced boot loader is carried out to specify boot address of the application mode image manually. Experiments have demonstrated the feasibility of updating and running a new application mode image, as well as rolling back into the factory mode image when no application mode image is available. This scheme applies a single CAN bus, which makes the system easy to construct and suitable for the field distributed control system.

Analysis on Implementation Technology of Firmware Boot Sequence

Firmware is an important part of the computer architecture, the Firmware in the process of self-test can be set through selecting specific options to adjust the boot sequence menu list, allowing the computer to select the media type to start the operating system. In this paper,through the analysis of Firmware’s boot sequence principle, pointed out the process of implementation of the Firmware boot sequence, including the position of reading boot sequence data, get the signatures of boot sequence and other key technologies. The correctness of results of the boot sequence modification experimental has been proved.

임베디드 리눅스 시스템에서 하이버네이션 기반 부팅 방식 구현

컴퓨팅 시스템의 부팅 시간 지연 문제는 시스템 소프트웨어 분야에서 중요한 이슈로 부각되어 왔다. 최근 임베디드 시스템 환경에서도 리눅스의 부팅 속도 개선에 많은 관심이 집중되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 임베디드 리눅스 시스템의 대안적인 부팅 방식으로써 하이버네이션을 기반으로 하는 부팅 방식에 주목한다. 본 논문은 다음의 두 가지 측면에서 그 의의를 찾을 수 있다. 첫째, 실제 모바일 전자기기에 널리 활용되는 ARM 임베디드 개발 보드에서 리눅스 버전 2.6.21에 하이버네이션 기반 부팅 방식을 구현한다. 둘째, 하이버네이션 기반 부팅 과정을 시간대 별로 관찰하고 부팅 속도 개선의 여지에 대해서 논의한다. 실제 구현을 통한 부팅 과정 분석 결과, 다양한 최적화 기법이 적용될 경우 하이버네이션 기반 부팅 방식은 전통적인 부팅 방식보다 최대 3.1배 정도 빠른 부팅을 제공할 수 있을 것으로 기대된다. Improving system boot time has become one of the most important issues in the system software arena. As Linux is widely used in the embedded system environment, extensive research has been conducted in order to mitigate Linux boot time delay. In this respect, this paper mainly focuses on the Hibernation-based boot mechanism, which is the boot mechanism based on Hibernation, as an alternative to the conventional boot sequence. The contributions of this work are as follows. First, we implement the Hibernation-based boot mechanism on a real embedded Linux system and describe the implementation details. Second, we observe the Hibernation-based boot procedures so that we can investigate the possibility whether the boot mechanism has room for improvement in terms of the boot time. Through the in-depth observation and analysis based on the real implementation, we anticipate that the Hibernation-based boot mechanism which adopts various optimization methods can provide maximum of 3.1 times faster booting performance compared to the conventional way.